This week, Document Women has gathered stories concerning the welfare of women at home and abroad, past and present. 

Sudan

This week, Sudanese women’s rights campaigner Amira Osman was detained in a raid. According to her sister Amani Osman, about 15 armed, masked men wearing civilian clothes abducted Osman after storming her house in Khartoum late at night. Osman campaigned for women’s rights in Sudan under the Islamist rule of former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted during an uprising in 2019.

The United Nations mission in Sudan said on Twitter it was outraged by Osman’s arrest, citing a “pattern of violence against women’s rights activists” that risked reducing their participation in politics.

Read more here. 

Poland

This week, protests rocked Poland after the death of a 37-year-old woman who was denied an abortion. Agnieszka T was pregnant with twins when one of the fetus’ heartbeats stopped and doctors refused to carry out an abortion. Agnieszka’s family said the doctors refused to remove the fetus, quoting the current abortion legislation. They waited several days until the second fetus also died. A further two days passed before the pregnancy was terminated. After the termination, Agnieszka’s health continued to deteriorate.  Her husband begged the doctors to save his wife, even at the cost of the pregnancy. – Wioletta Paciepnik, Agnieszka’s twin sister

Agnieszka’s death marks the first anniversary of the 2021 ruling that declared abortion due to foetal abnormalities illegal. Abortion can now only be carried out in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life and health are in danger.

Read more here. 

Spain

The Catalan parliament has passed a resolution to pardon up to 1,000 people – the majority of them women – condemned for the crime of witchcraft in the region 400 years ago. This comes after countries like Scotland, Switzerland and Norway signed a manifesto titled: They weren’t witches, they were women.

It is estimated that between 1580 and 1630 about 50,000 people were condemned to death for witchcraft across Europe, of whom about 80% were women.

Read more here. 

Lebanon

This week, dozens of Kenyan domestic workers have been squatting in their consulate to demand their right to be repatriated. The women came to Lebanon for work under the country’s kafala system, which is often compared to modern-day slavery. After months of abuse or non-payment, they left their employers in hopes of returning to Kenya.

During Lebanon’s devastating economic crisis, many employers have been unable to pay the workers. In 2020, several groups of domestic workers from Ethiopia, the Philippines and Sudan also held sit-ins in their embassies after being abandoned by their employers.

Read more here.  

Mexico

TW: violence against women, homophobia

After the dismembered remains of a lesbian couple were found along a highway outside Juárez, Mexico, feminist and LGBTQ+ groups took to the streets to protest the rampant violence against women. The couple’s murder brings to 11 the number of women who have already been killed in Juárez so far this year.

Read more here.